U.N. Deploys Special Forces in Congo Copper-Mining Province

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo Thursday started to deploy special forces in Katanga province in an attempt to contain a growing wave of insecurity in the country's copper-mining heartland, a military spokesman said.

A separatist militia group, known as Bakata Katanga, has stepped up attacks in Katanga since March, destabilizing the province that has for years been shielded from the violent insurgencies that have dogged mineral-rich eastern Congo since the late 1990s. In March, Bakata Katanga swept through...